Hospitals Articles

This section summarizes our hospital ratings and describes other information you can gather yourself. The section “Hospital Ratings Data Details,” listed below, provides further discussion of these data and its strengths and weaknesses.

Choosing a good hospital can be a life and death decision, as our ratings of hospitals for inpatient care reveal. Preventable medical errors kill at least 200,000 patients each year in the U.S., making it the third leading cause of death.

Before a hospitalization, learn as much about your case as time allows to answer two critical questions: what is wrong with you and what is the best approach to treatment? What you learn will help you play an active role in monitoring your care.

Another indicator of hospital quality is by the Magnet Recognition Program, which was developed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to identify healthcare organizations that provide the best in nursing care.